Get Emotional

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Most consumers want to be loyal. According to one study, for instance, four out of five shoppers prefer not to shop around for the best deals—they’d rather stick with the tried and true. Yet most companies seemingly do their best to alienate customers by making them feel like faceless targets of the firms’ marketing machines.

Think about the standard rewards programs: fly so many miles with us and we’ll eventually give you a free ticket. But by speaking exclusively to customers’ wallets, not to their hearts, these programs subtly undermine customer loyalty—they encourage customers to move on when a better offer comes along.

Hallmark Cards has been helping people make emotional connections for decades. Over the years, we’ve honed the messages of our cards to fit a vast array of situations and sensibilities. Recently, we decided to capitalize on our experience speaking to people’s hearts by forming a loyalty marketing group that would help companies communicate with their customers on an emotional level. We’ve discovered three imperatives that can help turn short-term deal seekers into long-term customers.

Show that you still care. Many people are persuaded to buy a company’s product for a trial period. Sign up for our credit card and get an APR of 0.0%; use our long-distance service and you’ll get so many free minutes. But what does the long-term customer get in return for her loyalty? Usually nothing more than a monthly bill.

A major telecommunications provider recently decided to change its emphasis from acquiring customers for its wireless service to retaining existing customers. The traditional approach would have been to send out a direct mail offer: “If you do this, we’ll give you that.” Instead, the company sent out an anniversary card when a customer had used the wireless service for nearly a year. Tucked inside the card was a phone card with free minutes encoded in it. The anniversary card didn’t ask people to do anything—it was simply a way of saying thank you. But later, when the company did send letters asking people to renew their contracts, it found that it had reduced customer churn by 33%.

The lesson here is people want to be won, not bought. The anniversary card sent by the wireless provider was an unexpected but welcome surprise to customers. By telling them, “We still care,” it made an emotional connection that earned greater company loyalty.

Treat people with dignity. When a customer falls behind on payments, the rational thing to do is to send a dry letter telling him to pay up and then gradually turn up the heat. If you eventually lose the customer—well, good riddance. But that tactic is shortsighted. Many otherwise good customers—people with histories of making timely payments—get behind on payments for reasons outside their control. They may feel embarrassed and may be unsure how to approach the company.

The worst thing you can do is assume that these customers don’t care and that they’re no longer valuable. It is possible to connect with people emotionally by giving them a graceful way to handle the problem.

A large U.S. credit card issuer did that when it sent hand-addressed greeting cards to customers who had fallen behind. The card showed a stream running through a forest; the text within noted that life often takes sudden, unexpected turns and gently asked people to call the company so that the problem could be solved cooperatively. The card was hand-signed and included an 800 number. Those who called received credit counseling and help in developing a payment plan.

The result? The credit card company reaped a windfall in payments that it would otherwise have had to write off. The key was approaching people as human beings, easing their fears, and helping them get back on track.

Show that you trust them. Many companies don’t realize that a subtle way to earn loyalty is to show that they trust their customers. The fact is, people like to feel that they’re giving something back besides their money, even in a business relationship.

Not long ago, agents at a leading insurance company used their close relationships with customers to accomplish the extremely delicate work of soliciting referrals. Done right, a referral request is a compliment to the customer. After a positive interaction with a client, the agent sent out a personalized note using his or her own digitized handwriting. The message was that “good clients are appreciated,” and within the envelope was a business reply card that asked if the client had a friend or relative he’d like to refer. The approach paid the client a compliment—you’re such a good customer, we trust you to recommend another—and it avoided putting the policyholder on the spot with a face-to-face question. This particular campaign brought in more than three times the number of referrals than the conventional approach.

To be able to follow any of these imperatives effectively, the price and the product you are offering have to be at least on par with competitors—otherwise, don’t even bother trying to establish a relationship based on emotion. But because today there is a great deal of parity among prices and products, companies must look elsewhere for a competitive advantage. Connecting with people emotionally—whether through a greeting card, an e-mail message, or a face-to-face encounter—is one way to keep customers coming back for more.

Scott Robinette is president of Hallmark Loyalty Marketing Group, a division of Hallmark Cards, in Kansas City, Missouri.

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